When the Broadmead Business Improvement District (BID) was first created in 2005 few people knew what a BID was.

Although the concept had been thriving in the United States for years, the BID idea of an organised collective of retailers putting money into a central pot to be used to improve their area – and in so doing generate more business – was almost entirely new in the UK.

But it came at a time when Broadmead, pre-Cabot Circus, felt immeasurably threatened by the looming new presence of the Mall at Cribbs Causeway, and retailers were quick to sign up to the BID idea.

It is now one of 270 BIDs across the UK – with five separate BIDs in Bristol alone, of which Broadmead remains the biggest, and having been voted back in for three terms, certainly one of the county’s most successful.

But now a new BID is proposed and over the next few weeks businesses across the city centre – more than 800 in total, including Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol as well as a host of corporates, banks, restaurants and bars, as well as shops, will get a say on the idea.

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The proposed Bristol City Centre BID will dwarf the Broadmead BID in scale and geographic spread, and given its wider area will be considerably more diverse in terms of organisations involved.

Any organisation within the zone that pays business rates will have the opportunity to vote yes or no to the BID in the coming weeks and if more than 50 per cent (both in terms of numbers and massed rateable values) vote yes, the new BID will be brought to life.

Then all businesses within the zone will have to pay a levy (whether or not they voted at all) of 1.5 per cent of their rateable value. This will give the BID a pot of £1.2 million a year to spend on anything from targeting street safety initiatives to improving the cleanliness of the area, improving the look and feel of the area and marketing the place to encourage more visitors.

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“It’s all about improving the area and encouraging more people to visit,” explains John Hirst, the chief executive of Destination Bristol, who also heads up the Broadmead BID, and is behind the drive for this wider scheme.

The proposed Bristol City Centre BID area

He has appointed retired police officer Keith Rundle as city centre BID development manager, and both are currently busy visiting all 800+ businesses in the area to encourage them to vote “yes”.

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By a peculiar quirk though, retailers within the Broadmead BID area will not get to vote – as they will continue as a separate BID until their current BID term comes to an end in October 2018. They will then be given the option of joining the new wider BID, continuing as a separate BID or ending the BID.

“The Broadmead BID has been such a huge success over the last 12 years, so we would fully expect them to wish to join the wider city centre BID,” Keith explains. “But we’ll have to wait and see.”

For more details, visit www.bristolcitycentrebid.co.uk. Voting in the city centre BID ballot closes on July 5, with a result announced on July 6. If you do not receive a ballot paper by June 13, call 0117 9462215.